EDUCATION REPORT

Hokitika Guardian, 8 September 1930, Page 7

EDUCATION REPORT

FEAVER SCHOOL CHILDREN. GROWTH OF FARMING BIAS. WELLINGTON, Sept. 4. There is a small but steady increase in the number of children attending our primary schools. The drop last years, according to the Education Department’s report, was 83.3, and the total enrolments are 217,961. This tendency, which commenced in 1928 and continued last year, follows as a consequence of the diminishing rate of increase in the population recorded in the past few years. The main causes contributing to this movement are stated by the Government Statistician to he the continued fall in the birth rate and the shrinkage in the nominal excess of overseas arrivals over departures. So long l as these conditions continue, further decreases can accordingly be expected in the enrolments at the primary schools. However, the financial section shows an increase of £175,598 in expenditure on all phases of education which amounts to £4,138,577. PUPIL’S DESTINATIONS. Discussing the destinations of pupils leaving school, it is shown that 23,022 left the primary schools last year, this figure included 12,059 hoys, It 'is stated that 51 per cent of the boys and 53 per cent of the girls who left last year, proceeded to posLpHmary schools 20 per cent of the boys engaged in farming pursuits, and seven per cent of the boys entered various trades. The percentage of pupils proceeding to various destinations on leaving primary school have varied little in the past tlirye years. The percentages of boys proceeding to agricultural and pastoral occupations and to trades remained unaltered. REMAIN AT SCHOOL. The most Appreciable movement was in the increasing percentage of. pupils proceeding to ! a post-primary school after completing the primary course. This increase, it is felt, is due to the fact that when sufficient employment is not available' for boys and girls at the termination of their primary sohooJ course, as has been the case is the past few years, parents prefer to send their children to post-primary schools where the period of awaiting employment can be more, profitably spent than if the children were permitted to waste this time in idleness. GROWING BAIS FOR FARMING. The report reverts to this question in the section covering secondary education, pointing out that the two most nbtewotrthy features are steady increases in the percentages of boys who, on leaving the post-primary school, proceed to farming or trades and industrial. occupations,

The increase in the percentage of boys from purely 'secondary schools 1 proceeding to farming occupations is particularly gratifying, states the report, in view of the charge so often made that schools of this type are urealng a bias from fanning pursuits. Examination of the returns from individual schools shows that some secondary schools are making very appreciable efforts towards counteracting the downward drift of young .people. RANGIORA’S EXAMPLE. Last year 53 per cent of the boys who left the Rangiora High School took up farming work. From Waitaki Boys’ High School the percentage was 48: Dannevirke High School, 40: and Gore Pligh School, 37. In the case of technical high schools 53 per cent of the boys who left the Ashburton Technical School last year proceeded to farming occupations, while in the cases and Feilding Technical High School, and Feilding Tohnical High School, the percentages were 52 and 45 respectively. This large percentage of expupils proceeding to farming occupations is of course, not maintained by nil schools. The percentages in the case of the large secondary schools in the cities are as might be expected, much lower As a result, the percentage of hoys leaving all secondary schools in 1929 and proceeding to farm work was 19 only. Nevertheless, the fact that this percentage has increased from 17 in 1927 shows that the trend is in the right direction. So far as the future prosperity of the country is concerned, the postprimary schools, and particularly the secondary schools, should continue to avoid any tendency that will encourage an urban drift, or neglect of the farming industry, adds the DireetorGpnoral of Education,